


his downfall:

by highinfibre



Series: Ghosts; An Anthology [3]
Category: Ghosts (TV 2019)
Genre: Gen, Poetry, blackout poem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:28:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24626239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/highinfibre/pseuds/highinfibre
Summary: a Tory out of touch with reality, too busy having a good time-a blackout poem, on Julian and his affairs
Series: Ghosts; An Anthology [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1751281
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	his downfall:

#  50 years after his downfall: How the Profumo affair changed Britain

Tabloid newspapers under pressure from politicians. Ministers misleading Parliament.  
The ugly underbelly of society revealed in judge-led inquiries. Tales of drunken high jinks involving well-connected public school boys.  
Secretary of State for War John Profumo told a packed House of Commons “there was no impropriety whatever in my acquaintance with Miss Keeler”.  
With those words he sealed his fate, helped bring down a government, and changed the shape of post-war British society.  
To many, the Profumo scandal seemed to mark the end of an era when a tight Establishment circle could hush-up misdemeanours and keep a prying public away.  
The traditional way was up against an assertive press and a less deferential culture.  
In its wake, people trusted politicians less  
On the one hand, it was a familiar tale of sex and power. Christine Keeler was a 19-year-old showgirl from rural Berkshire.  
Together with her good-time girl friend Mandy Rice-Davies, she found her element in Swinging Sixties London, working in a cabaret club in Soho.  
John Profumo, by contrast, was a man of the Establishment.  


Elected aged 25 in 1940, by the early 1960s this Tory high-flyer was on his way to great things. It was an unlikely pairing. But the married, flirtatious Profumo and the fun-loving Keeler came together in July 1961 at Viscount Astor’s country home Cliveden.  
As Profumo took an after-dinner walk, he heard giggling from the swimming pool. Then, before his eyes, there darted across the lawn the figure of Christine Keeler.  
So the affair began innocuously enough with a few weeks of passion. Before long, journalists had got whiff of a high-society scandal. MPs named Profumo and it all erupted. In the meantime, Fleet Street had a field day with stories of orgies, naked ministers, and rumours of royal involvement.  
Wilson thought the scandal revealed “the sickness of an unrepresentative sector of our society” and called for “values which exalt the spirit of national dedication”.  
Wilson played on the idea of an Establishment Tory Party out of touch with reality, too busy having a good time to serve the nation.

TRISTAM HUNT

  


**Author's Note:**

> the article i used is linked here: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/profumo-affair-how-scandal-changed-1777757


End file.
